A small difference between our figures and the number your terminal shows is normal. Larger differences usually trace back to one of these.
Common causes
- Pip convention. Yen pairs use a pip of 0.01, most other pairs 0.0001. Metals and indices are quoted differently again, and some brokers treat one dollar on gold as a different number of points.
- Contract size. A standard lot is 100,000 units of the base currency, but a metals or index contract may have its own size, so the same lot number is not the same exposure.
- Conversion rate. Pip value is computed in the quote currency and then converted into your account currency. The rate used matters, and the terminal uses its own.
- Leverage actually applied. Brokers set leverage per instrument and per jurisdiction, and it may be lower than the maximum your account is advertised with.
- Costs left out. Spread, commission and swap are not part of a sizing formula, though they are part of the outcome.
What to do
Set the calculator to match your instrument specification and treat the platform as authoritative for anything you are about to trade. Where a specification is unusual, such as gold, the calculator states that assumption on screen rather than hiding it.